Tag: values

The beast

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How much of the past are you taking into today?

Will you be saying ‘hello’ to the person who rejected you years ago, calling now with a new opportunity?

Will you be asking ‘what’s next?’ when a friend you have not talked to in years will want to patch things up?

Will you be open to take that chance, despite having failed it before in similar circumstances?

If we can label what’s going on, look the beast in the eyes, move past regrets, judgement and might-have-beens, our day will be much lighter.

There’s no need to overcomplicate things with burdens that serve no purpose in our life.

Precaution and preoccupation

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In certain circumstances, when much is at stake, when it’s a matter of life or death, when you are trying to contain a problem that could have grim repercussion, overreacting can be the right choice. It’s about protecting something that is dear, and it is ok to be overly precautious.

Being preoccupied, on the other hand, is rarely the better thing to do. It’s a distraction to keep us busy, a way to delay important decisions, a focus that engulfs our mind and that we do not need.

Precaution is action that keeps the problem at bay. Preoccupation is debate that makes the problem big enough so that nothing else exists.

Precaution is (it should be) the language of governments, authority, leadership. Preoccupation is the language of media, populism and masses.

Choose carefully which one to utilize as you go about this difficult time.

About the others

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Increasingly, the change we seek and want to bring about, the change to things we do not like or find unfair, is not a revolution led by a strong leader.

Examples such as #metoo and #blacklivesmatter show that change happens nowadays because of more or less spontaneous movements that find coordination and reach in the masses.

Change is less scary when it is not imposed, when it is shared, when it spreads horizontally.

As you go about your need for change, think: “how can I make it about the others?”.

What we are not

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What we are not helps define what we are.

Yet certainly, that cannot end there. This is particularly true when we compete, when we try to influence, when we run against something that is already established.

We need to differentiate, and that cannot be done by merely saying “not-the-other”. The more you let this message run, the more steam you are transferring to your adversary’s engine.

Building movements that matter is hard job because they require self-reflection, deep knowledge of the playing field and story building.

All the rest is a shortcut, and short is the breath that will sustain it.

The metrics that fit

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We obsess over the short term.

Will this title get me more clicks?

Will this project get me the promotion?

Will this topic be on the test?

Will this cover letter get me the job?

And perhaps we should spend more effort understanding if we are measuring the metrics that better fit. Is clicks what I really want? Is that promotions truly good for me? Am I in this for the piece of paper only? Do I just want a job?

If you don’t take a wider perspective, it’s going to be one chase after the other, one hustle after the other, one hack after the other. Of course you are exhausted.